The Witcher: Blood Origin casts Michelle Yeoh as a sword-elf warrior

The new Witcher spinoff series, The Witcher: Blood Origins, is a prequel set 1,200 years before the events of the main series, and Netflix announced its newest cast member in a series of tweets Tuesday. Michelle Yeoh has joined the cast of the new series as an elven warrior.

Yeoh will play a sword-elf named Scian, who is on a quest to retrieve a sacred stolen sword. Blood Origins will also star Laurence O’Fuarain as a warrior named Fjall, who will team up with a band of allies in a quest for vengeance. But while those are part of the series’ story, Netflix previously revealed that The Witcher: Blood Origin will dive into some of the most important events in The Witcher universe.

In the original synopsis of the series, and Tuesday’s tweets, Netflix explained that Blood Origin will tell the story of the creation of the first ever prototype Witcher. Perhaps even more importantly, the series will also explore the events that lead to the Conjunction of Spheres, the cataclysmic event that brought together the elves, dwarves, vampires, monsters, and humans that now inhabit the world of The Witcher.

Based on the somewhat vague information we know about the dates of these events, it’s not really clear that they line up with description that Blood Origins takes place “1,200 years before The Witcher.” For instance, it’s revealed in the video games that the Conjunction of Spheres happened something like 1,500 years before.

This could mean that Netflix’s series will flash back-and-forth in time just like the main Witcher series does, or it could mean that our understanding of dates in the universe might get a slight adjustment.

The Witcher: Blood Origin isn’t Netflix’s only upcoming Witcher series. The streaming service has also announced The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, an anime film, and season 2 of its main Witcher series. While The Witcher season 2 is likely to come out sometime in 2021, the other two series do not have release dates.